Welcome back to Cartoon Conversations! It’s the semi-regular written essay series where I break down cartoons, their influence, importance, and purpose and occasionally make arbitrary lists when I haven’t posted any content in a while and am feeling a little distracted by things like needing money. In all seriousness though, this one is something I’ve been thinking about for a while.
A cartoon’s quality can be judged on a variety of factors, but at its core, it’s a visual-based narrative artform. A narrative’s quality can be judged on a variety of factors, but at its core, it’s based on developing characters. A character’s quality can be judged by a variety of – okay, you get the picture. Long story short, villains are super important to the aesthetic of a cartoon. It’s not that they are integral to the medium, there are certainly animated shows that operate without a defined antagonist to drive the plot episode to episode. But villains are, by nature, supposed to be intense and excessive, and cartoons are pretty much the most intense and excessive art form out there. Ergo, many cartoons are defined by the popularity of their villains, since they tend to be the characters most tonally emblematic of the series as a whole. There are so many examples of this that I increased my usual ten-entry list by a whole 150% to include as many of my all-time favorites as possible without making a complete fool of myself. And also maybe as an apology for taking so long to write this.
However, there is a caveat here. A major aspect of the cartoon industry is adaptation and while some of the best cartoons of all time are based on pre-existing properties, their villains were not born from the creative liberty that animation affords. So, I made the difficult decision to exclude them from my list. For example, you won’t see Mark Hamill’s groundbreaking version of the Joker from ‘Batman the Animated Series’ on this list because the Joker is a comic book villain first and foremost, as much as it pains me to exclude such a masterful cartoon criminal.
For the same reason, Shredder,
Lex Luthor,
and Gargamel won’t be showing up either.
I’m also excluding anime villains as they deserve a list of their own someday. As always, one per series and yes, obviously Watchmojo.com has their own list on the same subject. For once, there’s very little overlap between their list and mine, but you’ll still see some faces and franchises repeated between the two. But that only speaks to how impactful and important certain characters are to the cartoon zeitgeist.
15. Squidward Tentacles - SpongeBob SquarePants
Watchmojo.com cites Plankton from ‘SpongeBob’ on their list. While he’s a pretty good villain, he’s not really the primary antagonist of SpongeBob’s life, more a rival to the avaricious Mr. Crabs than anything else. To be fair, SpongeBob is too care-free a character to have a real archnemesis anyway, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be someone’s most hated foe. Enter Squidward Tentacles, SpongeBob’s super-cynical, clarinet playing coworker and next door neighbor. The opposite of SpongeBob in every way, shape, and form, Squidward hates and actively resists the very concepts that SpongeBob embodies. Optimism? He abhors it and stays grounded in his miserable life. Innocence? He’s far too jaded. Cheeriness? A lifetime of being browbeaten has repressed his happiness to the point where only the suffering of others can bring a smile to his face.
That’s not to say he’s some manner of psychopath, though his mental state is dubious at best. He’s no sadist, he just wants others to feel the same anguish and disparity he feels every day. As a grown adult working the cashier at a fast food joint, Squidward feels cheated out of a hypothetical better life he believes was owed to him. Though he’s proven himself to be a talented artist, clarinet player, and general scholar, his ego, emotional instability, and pettiness have seemingly cost him any and all opportunities to improve his position in life. This results in his bad habit of targeting his animosity directly onto poor SpongeBob, who shares his profession but finds satisfaction in the simple pleasure of making other peoples’ meals. It’s a case of two people who were always destined to be polar opposites, to the point where one can love the other in spite of their relationship and one hates the other because of it. It’s almost Shakespearean except it’s, you know, ‘SpongeBob.’
14. Lila Rossi - Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir
‘Miraculous’ is one of the most frustrating cartoons I’ve ever seen. It is way worse than I want it to be but is already way better than it has any right to be. The French import centers around a pair of teenage Parisians named Marinette and Adrien who lead double lives as the superheroes Ladybug and Cat Noir. They have a fascinating dynamic between each other and their respective secret identities which, along with their high school drama, drives the dramatic heart of the show. Think ‘Sailor Moon’ meets ‘Caillou’ and all the good and bad that could come from such a pairing. Their primary villain is the evil Hawkmoth, who can make other villains with magic butterflies by corrupting the citizens of Paris in a one-by-one, monster-of-the-week fashion. But Hawkmoth himself almost never leaves his lair, is shown with mostly repeated animations, and his motivations are pretty superficial. He’s got a good, old-school cartoon villain vibe off him, but he’s just boring when you come right down to it. No, the real avatar of evil on this show is their high school classmate, Lila.
Lila is…she’s…well…okay, to be honest there’s no other way to say it: Lila is a Bitch with a capital-B. She is simultaneously cursed with a driving need for attention and blessed with a natural affinity for manipulation. Her pride is so intense that she considers anyone more popular than her, like the kind girl from school who always helps her friends or the sociable superheroes who keep her city safe, to be threats and most of her lies are to try and divert attention and support from them. And anyone who dares to call her out for her silver tongue risks having their friends and family turned on them by her toxic gossip. She’s such a bitch that Hawkmoth went so far as to make sure she was on his side and made an informal alliance with her. Through him, Lila has been turned into several separate supervillains on multiple occasions. As Vulpina, she can create illusions and, as Chameleon, she can transform into others. Both take advantage of her innate craftiness and have allowed her to further her goals, even in defeat. But even without powers, her lies have endeared her to pretty much all of Paris, making her all but immune to the comeuppance she deserves.
13. Mr. Burns - The Simpsons
I find it hard to say that ‘The Simpsons’ has a defined villain. There are so many characters of ill repute that have cropped up over the show’s three-decade-plus run that saying there’s one true bad guy at the core of it all feels both disingenuous and inaccurate. Picking anyone of the characters would risk discounting the serial stick-up artist Snake, the soft sociopath Moe, the would-be child murderer Sideshow Bob, and countless other sleezy, dangerous, or just plain mean yellow-skinned characters that have made one-off appearances. But at the end of the day, there’s only one denizen of Springfield who absolutely nobody can sympathize with. His nuclear plant pollutes the town with toxic waste, his vast wealth and age have put him completely out of touch with the common man to the point where he can’t remember his employees’ names, and his go-to response to any adverse situation is to sick his trained dogs on whatever happens to be obstructing his view. You know his name: Mr. Charles Montgomery Burns.
Voiced to sheer perfection by Harry Shearer, Mr. Burns is the uberwealthy, inhumane, and ancient shade hanging over Springfield. He’s one of the first and last of the old guard of capitalists, a man who made his untold fortune not by being the best or the smartest, but by being the most cruel and underhanded. And befitting of his age and mentality, he wields his money like a weapon, making life hell for anyone who would cross him. Though to be fair, that’s only when his feeling particularly vindictive. If he’s just frustrated with someone, he’ll have his faithful and well-bred hounds maul them instead, a much more lenient punishment in his eyes. And if he somehow misses a slight, his loyal assistant and unofficial life partner Smithers is more than happy to defend his employer’s pride, and then receive a battery of verbal abused for his trouble. As the epitome of the 1% gone mad, Burns himself is perhaps best summed up by his own sinister catchphrase: “Excellent.”
12. Dr. Claw - Inspector Gadget
Some villains need to perform horrific deeds to be eligible for the title of mastermind. Others just need to be seen to convey their evilness. But some villains can do it all with just their voice. ‘Inspector Gadget’s Dr. Claw falls into that last category. He’s another one of those “I am the author of your pain” villains who are content to sit in the background until absolutely necessary while their minions serve as the actual combatants against the hero. He’s only ever been depicted at obscuring angles, with a sole metallic arm being the sole piece of him viewers ever saw. His growling voice, provided by a number of terrific actors over the years, and menacing demeanor was all he needed to make it clear just what a threat he was. He even had a pet cat that he would stroke to make himself look like a menacing Blofeld clone.
However, his dialogue betrayed a different persona entirely. The character of Inspector Gadget was notorious for being bumbling and incompetent, with the real brains of the operation being his niece Penny. Unlike most villains who had the misfortune to fight this manner of heroic archetype, Dr. Claw was smart enough to understand that he was matching wits with an utter idiot. However, he wasn’t quite smart enough to realize that Gadget was genuine. Claw fully believed that Gadget was a fellow mastermind hiding his genius as an insult, adding to injury whenever one of Claw’s nefarious ploys was foiled. The dramatic irony made it harder to take Claw as a serious threat, but his constant, foiled cries of “Next time, Gadget! I’ll get you next time!” kept audiences coming back week after week.
11. Starscream - Transformers
It speaks volumes as to Starscream’s inherent likeability that he is very transparent about his goal of unseating his commander, ‘Transformers’ main antagonist Megatron, but is never replaced or disciplined for his numerous mutinies. Starscream was so popular with fans of the show, that even though he was canonically dead, he was revived as an actual robot ghost to make a cameo in the ‘Beast Wars’ spin-off series. Subsequent generations of the franchise have always been sure to include Starscream in one capacity or another, if for no other reason than to boost ratings.
Treacherous, whiny, and selfish, Starscream would screech with joy every time Megatron got even a little bit hurt as it got him that much closer to leading the aptly-named Decepticons. However, his constant failure to obey Megatron’s orders and his own bumbling egotism always prevented him from attaining his ultimate goal. Various versions of the character throughout the multiple incarnations of the show have evolved the character and added to his personality. He’s not just a duplicitous backstabber, he’s a coward who, when stripped of his delusions of grandeur, suffers from a deep depression over his inability to achieve his dream. No matter how clever or sympathetic he gets, he’ll always be second best to Megatron. It’s a dynamic designed to resonate strongly with children, who can intrinsically relate because their young lives revolve around the fact that they are small and have little to no control over their day-to-day lives. And what better avatar of that universal frustration could there be than a shrill, annoying, but sensitive giant robot that can turn into a fighter jet and has an action figure?
10. Daffy Duck - Looney Tunes
While other Looney Tunes antagonists may be more direct with their villainy, there’s no question in my mind who the worst of their lot is. Elmer Fudd may be a trigger-happy hunter, Sylvester Cat may be a nefarious predator, and Wile E. Coyote may be dedicated to the cold-blooded murder of a certain roadrunner, but none of them are as singular-minded, selfish, and greedy as Daffy Duck. Created in the late 1930s, Daffy was one of the first ‘Screwball’ characters, meant to let his oversized personality drive the comedy as opposed to his fantastical journeys. And even among the first breed of these characters, including his arch-rival Buggs Bunny, Daffy stood apart. He was almost child-like in how inconsiderate he was of others, to the point where he almost came across as a solipsist philosopher, believing anyone other than himself so replaceable and irrelevant to the point of disposability.
His most famous adventures are, of course, his constant battles with Buggs over who will be Elmer Fudd’s prey. The ongoing debate between duck and rabbit season made up the majority of their early escapades, always ending with Daffy getting his inevitable just desserts. While Buggs was able to outwit and outsmart his enemies, Daffy preferred the easier method of throwing anyone and everyone around him under the bus to escape his fate. Which proved irrelevant as all Elmer’s gun was able to do was blow his bill to the wrong side of his head. Nevertheless, subsequent incarnations and interpretations of the Looney Tunes have always painted Daffy with the most negative light possible, and with good reason. Whether he’s a domesticated suburbanite or a lame duck walking, the dude’s a straight up sociopathic rat bastard. And we love him for it!
9. Barry Dylan - Archer
The best villains are the one who will go to any lengths to achieve their goals, and cartoons allow their villains to go so extreme with their determination that you can’t help but be impressed by some of them. This is where Barry Dylan comes in. A former agent of the spy organization ODIN, Barry Dylan always had a strained relationship with Sterling Archer. Maybe their feud began when Archer dropped him off a roof on two separate occasions. Maybe it started because he caught Archer sleeping with his girlfriend. Or maybe it was because Archer is a notorious douchebag. Seriously, Archer is more of a jerk than most of the villains on this list. Whatever the reason, Barry hated Archer. How much did he hate Archer? Enough to become a cyborg assassin, kill Archer’s wife, revive her as a cyborg assassin just so he can seduce her in front of Archer, take over the KGB to run operations against Archer’s spy agency, kill a man who may or may not be Archer’s father, follow Archer to the ISS to try and reenact a scene from ‘Alien,’ and try to kill Archer’s coworkers just for their proximity to his hated rival.
Basically, Barry has made it his mission in life to kill Archer. As of his last canonical appearance, he was an actual terminator, his fake flesh having been burned off of him by his latest encounter with Archer, leaving him nothing but a sentient, indestructible, robot skeleton. His mental state has deteriorated over time (being stranded alone on the ISS for a considerable amount of time will do that to you) and he began finding himself speaking to a hypothetical “Other Barry” who has since become a character unto himself, a psychopathic killer with zero remorse. Regular Barry has been distracted from his main goal by his side quest of finding his birth mother, but it’s only a matter of time before he returns to form and restarts his unending vendetta against the world’s drunkest secret agent.
8. Dr. Doofenshmirtz - Phineas & Ferb
Phineas & Ferb is an absolute miracle of a show and anyone who hasn’t seen it needs to. Seriously, watch any given episode and if you’re not in love with everyone and everything about it by the end credits, I’ll give you five dollars out of my own pocket (not a legally binding statement). Just to give you a taste of how fun this cartoon is, one of the major plot points is that the protagonists’ pet platypus, Perry, is an actual for-real secret agent. And his archenemy is the unconscionable, hilarious Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz, the mad scientist owner of Doofenshmirtz Evil, Inc.
The show is very formulaic, but in the best way possible. Every episode, Perry is sent to stop Doofenshmirtz, he gets caught by some overly-convoluted trap, and then lets Doofenshmirtz gloat and monologue about his latest evil invention or scheme to rule the tri-state area until the mysterious monotremata can break out and stop the spiteful scientist. In his monologues, Doofenshmirtz is more than happy to recount his numerous pathetic backstories to justify his latest villainous schemes. As it turns out, things were rough, growing up in a fictional eastern European town. His own parents failed to show up for his birth, his brilliant inventions were beaten in his school science fairs by a series of kids with baking soda volcanos, and he was always shown up by his brother Roger. These heart-tugging backstories, his constant optimism in the face of his consistent failures, and his penchant for giving his creations silly names (his top three creations are the time-travel-inator, the turkey-inator, and the dodo-bird-incubator-inator) have endeared him to fans and made him an unmistakable staple of the show. And all while he was co-parenting his teenage daughter with his ex-wife. In most shows like this, there would be a revolving door of funny villains to provide for evil shenanigans, but ‘Phineas & Ferb’ only ever needed the one.
7. Toffee - Star vs. the Forces of Evil
I have very mixed feelings about ‘Star Vs. The Forces of Evil.’ On one hand, I love the characters, world, writing, animation, and story, but on the other hand it’s a confused mess that could never make up its mind on whether it wanted to be a fun and explosive childish romp or a dark and serious fairy-tale drama. This tonal whiplash resulted it ending on something of a lackluster note after losing all sense of pacing halfway through the series. Overall though, it was pretty entertaining. Originally, it followed the adventures of Star Butterfly, a wacky and magical princess from another dimension, as she studied abroad on Earth and teamed up with her best friend Marco to fight the incompetent Ludo and his crew of monsters as they try to steal Star’s magic wand. Ludo was a fun villain, more like an overgrown child wielding an inappropriate amount of power than anything else. And being played by voice acting G.O.A.T. Alan Tudyk didn’t hurt his likability. But then, about halfway through the first season, Toffee arrived on the scene.
With his sharp suit, calm demeanor, and the voice of ‘Dexter’s Michael C. Hall, Toffee instantly stood out from the other monsters on the show. By the end of the season, he’d undermined Ludo’s authority and taken his place as leader of the monsters, outsmarted Star and poisoned her magic wand, and had sown the seeds of his eventual, long-term victory. All while staying a cool customer with a surprising amount of panache and flair. Over time, his backstory was revealed in brief, gradual snippets, showing him grow from a teenage monster radicalized by social injustice to a seasoned general of an invincible army to a scheming mastermind manipulating events from behind the scenes. He’d almost be sympathetic if his actions weren’t downright reprehensible. His arrival on the show introduced an aura of serious drama which became the show’s default tone over time. By the time the show was over, it was almost unrecognizable as the bright and peppy high-school screwball comedy it had started as, all because of one monster.
6. Aku - Samurai Jack
Genndy Tartakovsky is one of the greatest animation artists and directors of all time and ‘Samurai Jack’ is his unmistakable magnum opus. Not only did it put his sharp-lined, fast-paced style in the public eye, but it perfectly mimicked the style and tone of Kurosawa-era Japanese cinema. The show was about a samurai prince from ancient Japan who was the only one who could kill a shapeshifting, evil demon who had taken over his country. To postpone having to deal with this messiah, the demon exiled the samurai into the far-flung future, to a time where the demon had conquered not only Earth, but the entire universe. In the future, the samurai was given the nickname “Jack” and had to team up with and fight against a variety of aliens, mystic forces, and cults in his quest to defeat the demon and return to his native time. It’s a heavy epic of a show and it wouldn’t work if the serious and wise Jack didn’t have an equal and opposite to spar against. But fortune was on the show’s side because his demonic enemy was the evil Aku and he. Was. Amazing.
Voiced by the late, great Makoto “Mako” Iwamatsu, Aku was a sneaking, nefarious evil. As the ruler of the world, Aku was a tyrannical, if bored, overlord. He demanded tributes from all the civilizations he oppressed, but was always disappointed by their lackluster offerings. Though he would always attempt an air of formality, Aku was as dishonorable and cowardly as they came. Since Jack was the only one who could kill him, Aku was more than happy to send mercenaries and minions to soften the samurai up, but would often show up at the last second when victory seemed inevitable. This was despite being an immensely powerful being. Aku’s body is actually made of a fluid composed of pure evil, allowing him to alter his size and shape at will. He’s immune to pain and injury, only vulnerable to Jack’s enchanted samurai sword. But even without those intimidating stats, he’d still be an awesome villain with his cackling laugh, patronizing demeanor, blatant hypocrisy, and signature catchphrase of “DIE!!!”
5. Shego - Kim Possible
‘Kim Possible’ was a neat little show that late millennials and early gen-Zers will remember fondly through the haze of nostalgia. Blessed with the rare ability to bridge the gap between cartoon buffoonery and legitimate drama, it centered around the titular female lead, just your basic, average teenage girl who inadvertently became asuper spy because reasons. The show was riddled with excellent villains, from the golf-themed Scottish terrorist Duff Killigan to the best-named tag team ever of Señor Senior Sr. and Señor Senior Jr. to the in-hindsight-culturally-insensitive Monkey Fist. All of them were great in their own right, but there were no villains on this show or any other like Shego.
Decked out in an instantly iconic black-and-green getup, Shego was the right hand woman to the show’s primary antagonist, the childish and egotistical Dr. Drakken, but was the direct rival to Kim herself. While the other villains on the show ranged from entitled billionaires trying out villainy for kicks to megalomaniacs with ludicrous plans for global domination, Shego was the only one mature enough to pose a legitimate threat. Her clear over-competency among a field of losers left her frustrated, impatient, and short tempered. When she wasn’t resorting to extreme physical violence with her superior combat abilities and green energy blasts, she was sassing her boss, ridiculing her enemy, or relaxing at a spa. Despite being the most dangerous villain on the show, she was also the funniest, in keeping with the show’s tone. Her sarcastic banter, jaded personality, and no-nonsense demeanor made her a perfect foil for pretty much every character on the show. While this is in no small part thanks to the show’s good writing, it wouldn’t be nearly as engaging if it wasn’t for Nicole Sullivan’s stellar voice work. The raspy, bouncy flair she used helped to fully emote Shego’s annoyance and humor to the audience and her chemistry with prolific voice over artist John DiMaggio as Dr. Drakken made them the best duo on a show all about partnerships.
4. Harley Quinn - Batman: The Animated Series
I mentioned that villains who originated in other mediums weren’t eligible for this list, but Harley Quinn, who has since gone on to become a pop culture icon, was an original character made for ‘Batman: the Animated Series’ and therefore qualifies. And even if she didn’t I might have made an exception for Harley regardless as she is a damn good character. Created to be a henchwoman and potential love interest for the Joker, Harley was originally the clown prince of crime’s therapist in Arkham Asylum. During their sessions, Joker’s supersanity outmaneuvered her and he convinced her that she was in love with him. When she had her long-anticipated mental break, she threw on a decorative unitard, picked up a few explosive toys, and broke her sorta-boyfriend out of prison, starting her on a life of crime as Joker’s clingy lackey.
She’s still a fairly new addition to DC’s catalog of characters, but stands out due to her tragic origins and iconic look. However, she has since gone on to have her own adventures and developed her own personality, though her insanity has remained consistent through her various comic, cartoon, video game, and movie incarnations. Her massive and instant popularity can be attributed in no small part to Arleen Sorkin, the first of many talented voice actresses to play the Gotham Siren. Sorkin gave Harley a high-pitched, popping voice that sounded in equal parts ditzy and dangerous. It’s s style that’s been copied by every subsequent inheritor to Harley’s mantle, though each one has contributed a new addition to her character and mannerisms, making her even more of a copy of the iconic villain she spun off from. She’s the mallet-wielding manic pixie dream girl haunting every nerd’s fantasies and the reason why we’re still getting DC movies, for better or for worse.
3. Bill Cypher - Gravity Falls
‘Gravity Falls’ is one of the great tragedies of recent cartoon history. With fantastic animation, a stellar voice cast, nuanced writing, and an emotional plot, it was one of those rare projects that hit it out of the park on the first pitch and batted a thousand until the final episode. So it’s nothing less than a damn shame that the whole series lasted a measly two seasons. But that was more than enough time to introduce one of the funniest and most terrifying villains of all time: an Illuminati pyramid with stick-figure limbs, a bow tie, and a top hat who sounds like a bad David Lynch impression. It almost sounds like a joke and, for a good while, it is. But then it stops being funny and turns into pure nightmare fuel.
Bill Cypher has no greater desire than to breach the barriers that separate the quaint, accepting town of Gravity Falls, Oregon from the Weirdness, a dimension of random, terrifying, hateful magic that would destroy our world outright if it were to be completely unleashed. Bill is an apocalyptic demon from the Weirdness and, as such, has a grab-bag of horrific abilities. He can read and inhabit minds, steal souls, possess bodies, shapeshift, control reality and space, fly, resize himself, and teleport, all depicted with as gruesome animation as is possible. He has furniture made of living human skin, his favorite food is inhabited planets, and his favorite hobbies are finding out what someone’s greatest fear is and then transforming into it in front of them at the least opportune moment. As if that wasn’t scary enough, he can’t be hurt and can only be defeated in a dreamscape. He’s clever to a fault, having tricked almost all of the main characters at one point or another by making arcane deals and corrupting human souls. Voiced by series creator Alex Hirsch, Bill Cypher is every bit as terrifying, hilarious, and random as any great cartoon villain, despite his relatively recent debut.
2. Azula - Avatar: The Last Airbender
The ‘Avatar’ franchise has had a slew of terrific villains between its two series, so many in fact that I had a hard time picking just one to put into this slot. Just go ahead and assume that all of them get an honorary mention. Except for Unalaq. Unalaq sucked. But the undeniable top dog of the show’s villains was Azula, Princess of the Fire Nation. Introduced in the second season, Azula was the mysterious and sadistic younger sister of Zuko, who had served as the primary antagonist up to that point. But while Zuko had always been intended to be redeemable, Azula’s entire character is based on incurable cruelty. She was the type of monster to order her friends around like servants, kick over kid’s sandcastles for fun, and threaten her subordinates in a manner that was downright Machiavellian. Azula reveled in the kind of power she could wield over others and expected to find perfection wherever she looked, including in the mirror.
Though her personality was defined by her penchant for causing people pain, she would’ve been a useless character if she couldn’t back up her threats. But Azula put any doubts the audience might have had of her credibility to bed soon after being introduced. As a firebender, Azula could create and control flames, but unlike others with this ability, Azula’s fires were a sinister and dangerous blue hue that added a violent jolt to the palate of any frame. She was also a martial arts prodigy who could move as fast and as fluid as any other fighter in the show. Additionally, she introduced the firebending ability to generate lightning, which would become shorthand in the series for malicious intent. Apart from her physical powers and combat expertise, Azula was also a true political genius. Using nothing but her wit and manipulations, she was able to conquer a nation from a prison cell. And in true Azula fashion, she couldn’t help but gloat to the several prominent players she’d outsmarted along the way. Determined, evil, menacing, and savage, Azula was undone by her own pathological need for perfection and was driven insane by her own flaws in one of the most gut-wrenching scenes in the entire series.
1. Skeletor - He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
Despite my love of the Netflix reboot of ‘She-Ra,’ I was never all that into the original series or its source show, ‘He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.’ I know it has a place in every good millennial’s heart, but the animation boiled down to three or four repeated frames per scene, the voice acting was by-and-large lazy and tossed together, and each episode was nakedly a 22-minute long advertisement for the corresponding toy line. But all of these criticisms derive from the same source. In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan scaled back restrictions on children-oriented television, allowing them to be little more than merchandising vehicles with loose ties to a basic narrative. The jury is still out on whether this was a net positive or a net loss for the medium, but it was these measures that gave us ‘Transformers,’ ‘G.I. Joe,’ and ‘He-Man’ among many, many others. However, these reduced restrictions came with a catch: cartoons now had to exposit societal and philosophical lessons dictated by the ethics of Reagan-era society. This is where we get a lot of those classic PSAs and after-school specials, telling kids to say no to drugs, resist peer pressure, and not be afraid to go to police or parents with big issues. A lot of the writing on these shows was very stilted and dry because if the writers weren’t trying to sell their product, they were trying to shoehorn in government-mandated propaganda. Narrative, character development, and audience engagement always came secondary to those two elements.
There was, however, one key exception to these rules. Toy companies always wanted to push their hero toys and the government censors believed these characters to be best suited to act as their mouthpieces, so the protagonist’s dialogue was always the most heavily scrutinized. This left the villain, who the toy companies were less concerned with and the censors didn’t want to speak through, as the best and sometimes only creative outlet the writers had to work with. And in this era where the villains acted as the epitome of the showrunner’s frustration and angst, one character reigned supreme.
To this day, people use Skeletor as a shorthand for a pathetic but endearing villain. He’s a mascot for underdog skulduggery and an inspiration for countless villains like him in the medium. Though his backstory is explained in reboots and reimaginings, the original show never bothered to give him one, letting the sheer personality of a stubborn, ambitious, evil ruler speak for itself. As powerful as he was, Skeletor was always undone by the bumbling buffoonery of his underlings, his own childish ego, or just pure pettiness. Even his appearance exemplified this dichotomy. He looked muscular and his skull face had the potential to be frightening, but the blue skin and voice acting demigod Alan Oppenheimer’s screeching falsetto made it impossible to take him seriously. It was a simple enough set up and one that’s been done to death since, but he was the first of his kind. And despite the numerous copycats throughout the decades, including the ones on this list, nobody was as instantly sympathetic and hated, likable and unlikable, as the man, the myth, the half-naked legend, Skeletor, the ultimate cartoon villain.
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